Retired nurse who performed CPR on Southwest passenger nearly pulled out of plane recalls ‘significant trauma’

A retired nurse pulled off her oxygen mask and leaped into action aboard a Southwest Airlines flight after a hole in the fuselage pulled a fellow passenger halfway out of the plane.

"If you can possibly imagine going through the window of an airplane at about 600 miles an hour, and hitting either the fuselage or the wing with your body, with your face," Dallas resident Peggy Phillips told reporters Tuesday night. "Then I think I can probably tell you that there was significant trauma."

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The former registered school nurse was headed home from New York City on Tuesday when her plane's engine blew up, sending shrapnel into the cabin — 30,000 feet above the ground.

She and a fellow passenger — identified in news reports as Texas firefighter Andrew Needum — spent 20 minutes trying in vain to save Jennifer Riordan, whose upper body was pulled out of the plane.

Riordan, a Wells Fargo executive who lived in Albuquerque, N.M., died from her injuries despite the life-saving efforts.

Phillips spent 20 minutes trying to save Riordan after the passenger was nearly pulled out of the plane. (GMA)

"The whole thing was a little surreal," Phillips, who decided to get back on a plane for Dallas that night, told ABC News' "Good Morning America" on Wednesday. " I can't say that I slept very well last night, I'm sure most passengers did not sleep very well last night."

Officials said the left engine blew on Flight 1380 roughly 20 minutes after it left LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday en route for Dallas.

She and other passengers described a loud noise, and she heard a commotion near the back of the plane after the oxygen masks dropped.

Phillips recalled seeing a young man walking around without a mask trying to help.

Tim McGinty was across the aisle from Riordan and tried to pull her back in, but didn't have the strength to do it alone.

"A guy helped and we got her pulled in and they tried to resuscitate her," a cowboy hat-sporting McGinty told USA Today, referring to Needum.

Once they were able to get her back inside, someone called out for any passengers who knew how to perform CPR.

Officials are still investigating what prompted the engine to blow shortly after the Boeing 737 left New York City on Tuesday. (Amanda Bourman/AP)

"I got up and went back, took off my oxygen mask and began CPR immediately," she recalled, trying to save Riordan — even after the plane landed.

"I don't consider myself a hero by any stretch but there were heroes on that plane and I was just doing my job," she told "GMA." "Andrew was doing his job."

But McGinty's wife, Kristin, thought different.

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"Tim and Andrew pulled Jennifer back into our aircraft as it descended and Peggy gave CPR," Kristin McGinty wrote in a Fabebook post Tuesday night. "They are all heroes who put others before themselves today."

Riordan, a Wells Fargo executive and mother of two, died of her injuries. (Twitter)

"I pray for Jennifer's family as they mourn their loss and I thank God for His provisions and our safety."

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly on Tuesday sent his "deepest sympathies to the family and the loved ones of our deceased customer."

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the Boeing showed signs of "metal fatigue."

NTSB Chair Robert Sumwalt told reporters an engine blade appeared to have come off and is missing.